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Alchemy and Meggy Swan (England, 1573)
Author: Karen Cushman
Crippled, scorned, and destitute, Meggy Swann goes to London, where she meets her father, an impoverished alchemist, and eventually discovers that although her legs are bent and weak, she has many other strengths. Ages 10-14
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Angel on the Square (Russia, 1913)
Author: Gloria Whelan
Twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home to join her mother, a lady in waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and undreamed of changes to her life. Ages 9-12
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Ballad of the Pirate Queens (England and Jamaica, 1720)
Author: Jane Yolen
Two women who sailed with Calico Jack Rackham and his pirates in the early 1700s do their best to defend their ship while the men on board are busy drinking. Ages 6-8
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Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu (17th century China)
Author: Emily Arnold McCully
Tells the story of two unlikely kung fu masters and how their skill in martial arts saves them both. Ages 6-8
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Blood Red Horse (England/Arabian Peninsula, 1189)
Author: K.M. Grant
A special horse named Hosanna changes the lives of two English brothers and those around them as they fight with King Richard I against Saladin's armies during the Third Crusades. Ages 9-12
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Blue Fingers: A Ninja's Tale (Japan, 1480 -1603)
Author: Cheryl Aylward Whitesel
Having failed apprenticeship as a dye maker, Koji is captured and forced to train as a ninja, where he remains disloyal until he discovers samurai have burned his former village. Ages 9-12
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Breaking Stalin's nose (Soviet Union, 1930s)
Author: Eugene Yelchin
In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs. Ages 9 – 12. J YELCHIN
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Catherine, Called Birdy (England, Middle Ages)
Author: Karen Cushman
The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off. Ages 9-12
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Cheshire Cheese Cat: a Dickens of a Tale (19th Century London)
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy
A community of mice and a cheese-loving cat form an unlikely alliance at London's Cheshire Cheese, an inn where Charles Dickens finds inspiration and Queen Victoria makes an unexpected appearance. Ages 8-12. J DEEDY
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Chu Ju’s House (China, 1976 – 2002)
Author: Gloria Whelan
In order to save her baby sister, fourteen-year-old Chu Ju leaves her rural home in modern China and earns food and shelter by working on a sampan, tending silk worms, and planting rice seedlings, while wondering if she will ever see her family again. Ages 9-12
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Clay Marble (Cambodia, 1970)
Author: Mifong Ho
In the late 1970s twelve-year-old Dara joins a refugee camp in war-torn Cambodia and becomes separated from her family. Ages 9-12
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Death-defying Pepper Roux (Early 20th-century France)
Author: Geraldine McCaughrean
Having been raised to believe he will die before he reaches the age of fourteen, Pepper Roux runs away on his fourteenth birthday in an attempt to elude his fate, assumes another identity, and continues to try to outrun death, having many adventures in the process. Ages 10-14
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Dogboy (England/France, 1346)
Author: Christopher Russell
Twelve-year-old Brind, an orphaned kennel boy raised with hunting dogs at an English manor, accompanies his master, along with half of the manor's prized mastiffs, to France, where he must fend for himself when both his master and the dogs are lost at the decisive battle of Crécy. Ages 9-12
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Elephant Run (Burma, WWII)
Author: Roland Smith
Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants. Ages 9-12
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Hawksmaid: the Untold Story of Robin Hood... (12th Century England)
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Matty grows up to be a master falconer, able to communicate with the devoted birds who later help her and Fynn, also known as Robin Hood, to foil Prince John's plot to steal the crown. Ages 9-14.
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Keeper of the Grail (England, 1191)
Author: Michael P. Spradlin
Fifteen-year-old Tristan, a youth of unknown origin raised in an English abbey, becomes a Templar Knight's squire during the Third Crusade and soon finds himself on a mission to bring the Holy Grail to safety. Ages 9-12
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Kite Rider (13th century China)
Author: Geraldine McCaughrean
After trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Ages 9-12
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Listening for Lions (East Africa, 1918)
Author: Gloria Whelan
Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital. Ages 9-12
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Long Walk to Water (Sudan, 1985)
Author: Linda Sue Park
When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of a safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. Ages 10-14
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Midnight Zoo (Europe, WWII)
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Twelve-year-old Andrej, nine-year-old Tomas, and their baby sister Wilma flee their Romany encampment when it is attacked by Germans during World War II, and in an abandoned town they find a zoo where the animals tell their stories, helping the children understand what has become of their lives and what it means to be free. Ages 10 – 14. J HARTNETT
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Million Shades of Gray (Vietnam, 1975)
Author: Cynthia Kadohata
In 1975 after American troops pull out of Vietnam, a thirteen-year-old boy and his beloved elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village. Ages 9-12
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Moonshadow: Rise of the Ninja (Medieval Japan)
Author: Simon Higgins
Moonshadow is the newest agent for the Grey Light Order, a secret brotherhood of ninja spy warriors, and his first mission is to defeat a power-hungry warlord who plots to plunge the nation into a deadly civil war. Ages 9-12
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Nory Ryan’s Song (Ireland, 1845)
Author: Patricia Reilly Giff
When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive. Ages 9-12
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Number the Stars (Denmark, WWII)
Author: Lois Lowry
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. Ages 9-12
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Pirate Meets the Queen (England, 1533)
Author: Matt Faulkner
When the son of notorious Irish pirate queen Granny O'Malley is captured by the English, Granny tries to meet with Queen Elizabeth I to negotiate for his freedom. Ages 6-8
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Rex Zero and the End of the World (Canada, 1962)
Author: Tim Wynne-Jones
In the summer of 1962 with everyone nervous about a possible nuclear war, ten-nearly-eleven-year-old Rex, having just moved to Ottawa from Vancouver with his parents and five siblings, faces his own personal challenges as he discovers new friends and a new understanding of the world around him. Ages 9-12
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Sahwira: An African Friendship (Zimbabwe, 1964)
Author: Carolyn Marsden
The strong friendship between two boys, one black and one white, who live on a mission in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, begins to unravel as protests against white colonial rule intensify. Ages 9-12
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Secret of the Andes (Peru, 1953)
Author: Ann Nolan Clark
An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors. Ages 9-12
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Seven Paths to Death (Japan, 1600 -1868)
Author: Dorothy Hoobler
Samurai Seikei and Judge Ooka, his foster-father, seek seven men who have seven maps on their backs in order to locate a cache of dangerous weapons before they fall into the wrong hands. Ages 9-12
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Small Beauties: The Journey of Darcy Heart O'Hara (Ireland, 1840’s)
Author: Elvira Woodruff
Darcy Heart O'Hara, a young Irish girl who neglects her chores to observe the beauties of nature and everyday life, shares "family memories" with her homesick parents and siblings after the O'Haras are forced to emigrate to America in the 1840s. Ages 6-8
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So Far from the Bamboo Grove (Korea/Japan, WWII)
Author: Yoko Kawashima Watkins
A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II. Ages 9-12
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Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars (China, 647)
Author: Sheri Holman
In a series of messages placed in her grandmother's ancestral jar, a seventh century princess and future ruler of the Korean kingdom of Silla vents her frustration at not being permitted to study astronomy because she is a girl. Ages 9-12
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Splendors and glooms (London, 1860)
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
When Clara vanishes after the puppeteer Grisini and two orphaned assistants were at her twelfth birthday party, suspicion of kidnapping chases the trio away from London and soon the two orphans are caught in a trap set by Grisini's ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it is too late. Ages 9 -12. J SCHLITZ
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Sword Song (Britain/Vikings, 449-1006)
Author: Rosemary Sutcliff
Bjarni is cast out of the Norse settlement in the Angles' Land for an act of oath-breaking and spends five years sailing the west coast of Scotland and witnessing the feuds of the clan chiefs living there. Ages 9-12
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Traitor’s Gate (England, 1849)
Author: Avi
When his father is arrested as a debtor in 1849 London, fourteen-year-old John Huffman must take on unexpected responsibilities, from asking a distant relative for help to determining why people are spying on him and his family. Ages 9-12
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Walls of Cartagena (17th century Colombia)
Author: Julia Durango
Thirteen-year-old Calepino, an African slave in the seventeenth-century Caribbean city of Cartagena, works as a translator for a Jesuit priest who tends to newly-arrived slaves and, after working for a Jewish doctor in a leper colony and helping an Angolan boy and his mother escape, he realizes his true calling. Ages 9-12
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Well of Sacrifice (9th century Guatemala)
Author: Chris Eboch
When a Mayan girl in ninth-century Guatemala suspects that the High Priest sacrifices anyone who stands in the way of his power, she proves herself a hero. Ages 9-12
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When My Name Was Keoko (Korea, WWII)
Author: Linda Sue Park
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely. Ages 9-12
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Will Sparrow's Road (England, 1599)
Author: Karen Cushman
In 1599 England, twelve-year-old lying, thieving Will Sparrow runs away, meets many colorful characters on the road, and then reluctantly joins a traveling "oddities" exhibit, where he learns to see beyond appearances. Ages 8 – 12. J CUSHMAN
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Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Korea, 1945)
Author: Sook Nyul Choi
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea. Ages 9-12
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